Love is not always what one expects it to be. Shock, disillusionment and renewal are sometimes the eventual outcome of relationships gone wrong. Dorothy Parker, Mary Coleridge, and Robert Browning, all demonstrate these common themes, as well as others, through the use of romantic motifs in various tones, in the poems “One Perfect Rose”, “The Poison Flower” and “Porphyria’s Lover.”
In the first poem, Dorothy Parker's "One Perfect Rose", she describes the high expectations the speaker has towards suitors. On the surface this is shown in a materialistic sense; the speaker expresses her apparent discontent with the one “rose” her suitor has brought her because she expected more extravagance. In an article in “ Student Resources in Context” , this meaning is explored. “The rose is depicted as having the suitors love hidden within its petals as well as possessing a certain charm like an amulet would.” (Student Resources in Context) The classic romantic symbolism of the rose is downplayed as the speaker shows her cynical feelings on the somewhat cliche idea of the rose as a representation of love. The consistent iambic pentameter/diameter and repetition of the title, in a certain sense, mirrors the consistency in the way suitors approach her. Her suitors attempts are not unique enough to appease her deep longing to be a bride, to be taken away in a limousine; because they are all the same, not unique enough to take her hand in matrimony. Her desire for something unique is therefore deeper than a mere materialistic longing. The speaker has a grander sense of her self worth and feels that she deserves something much more significant, dignified and durable than that which is offered. The rose suggests impermanence and the fleeting natu...
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...table. “The Poison Flower” shows that the world and people are forever changing and one must learn to adapt. “Porphyria’s Lover” shows that strong emotions can sometimes take on a tragic twist.
Student Resources In Context. “One Perfect Rose.” EXPLORING Poetry.
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Chapman, Richard. “Mary E(lizabeth) Coleridge.” Contemporary Authors Online.
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Cheetham, Paul. “Porphyria’s Lover: Paul Cheetham explores the psychological dimensions of Browning’s Dramatic monologue.” The English Review 20.4 (2010): 21+.
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Ross, Catherine. “Browning’s Porphyria's Lover.” The Explicator 60.2 (2002): 68+.
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Ingersoll, Earl G. "Lacan, Browning, and the Murderous Voyeur: "Porphyria's Lover" and "My Last Duchess." Victorian Poetry 28 (1990): 151-157.
Have you ever fallen in love? Have you ever developed strong feelings for another? If problems arose between the two of you, were you able to overcome them? Well certain men in Robert Browning’s works couldn’t seem to. . . “overcome” these differences with their women. Browning grew up learning from his father’s huge library. His wife was much more successful at writing than him. Eight years after her death, his career turned around for the last 20 years of his life. During this time, he wrote many short dramatic monologues such as My Last Duchess and Prophyria’s Lover. These two very intriguing and disturbing Monologues, My Last Duchess and Prophyria’s Lover, by Robert Browning, involve two very messed up men whose actions are both alike in their idea of immortalizing their woman, but different in why they chose to commit the act between the two stories, and a conclusion may be drawn from this observation.
A common practice when faced with a difficult choice, self-examination, is the centerpiece of two popular poems: Gregory Corso’s Marriage and T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Both poems are dramatic monologues in which the speakers address the similar situations that they find themselves in. While the speaker of Eliot’s poem has a nervous and bashful approach in his attempts at romance, the hesitant postmodern speaker in Corso’s poem makes use of sarcasm to attack the institution of marriage. When these two monologues given by similar personas are analyzed together the result is a dialogue which discusses two distinguishing views on the ideas of romance and love.
The journey of life overflows with grand moments intermingled with inevitable sorrow. Each moment creating a chain reaction. In Maud; A Monodrama, Alfred Lord Tennyson explores the journey of a man in the universal search for the perfect Garden of Eden. Originally titled Maud or Madness, he described the “little Hamlet” as the history of a morbid poetic soul” who is “the heir of madness, an egotist with the makings of a cynic” (Hill 214). In the throes of madness, the protagonist experiences the grandest emotional triumph and the lowest depths of despair. Each milestone is marked by his cynicism. The protagonist “in his happiness, he is a cynic, in his unhappiness, a madman” (Crayon n. p.). Tennyson uses floral symbolism and vivid imagery to explore the mental voyage of madness in this “splendidly executed psychological study” (Hill 214).
Tradition is losing its value; people want to experience new things rather than the same routine. In One Perfect Rose, Dorthy Parker changes the emotional feel the readers get from the beginning, then how it is towards the end of the poem. Emphasizing how she is tired of the traditional rose and hints her admirer in breaking away from the perfect rose. Her love story impacts how she wrote and definitely resembles in the poem. She also uses imagery and repetition to get her message clear on leaving the typical rose behind.
“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning tells the story of a young woman that is strangled and killed by the man that she loves. The poem is set in the lover’s point of view. Browning challenges the reader to judge the speaker not as a simple monster, but as a person with much more complex emotions. By reading the speaker’s view the audience becomes captivated by him and searches the text for any redemptive qualities. Browning hides these qualities in the text using syntax, tone, and euphony versus cacophony.
Robert Penn Warren's poem “True Love” express the power of love and attraction to cause an unrequited love to become a source of nostalgia, admiration and the idealization of the intended for the admirer. The narrator and admirer, reminisces on his childhood memories of the older girl, still idealizes her to the point of her being a mere object rather than a real person. Years after the boy’s memories, the narrator still holds shallow impressions of the girl’s reality though but has grown to have a slightly deeper view of her situation.
There are many different themes that can be used to make a poem both successful and memorable. Such is that of the universal theme of love. This theme can be developed throughout a poem through an authors use of form and content. “She Walks in Beauty,” by George Gordon, Lord Byron, is a poem that contains an intriguing form with captivating content. Lord Byron, a nineteenth-century poet, writes this poem through the use of similes and metaphors to describe a beautiful woman. His patterns and rhyme scheme enthrall the reader into the poem. Another poem with the theme of love is John Keats' “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” meaning “the beautiful lady without mercy.” Keats, another nineteenth-century writer, uses progression and compelling language throughout this poem to engage the reader. While both of these poems revolve around the theme of love, they are incongruous to each other in many ways.
In “Porphyria’s Lover”, the speaker in this monologue is living in a cottage when his lover, who seems to be from a higher social class, comes in to see him. As
The types of love in a poem can be reflected in many ways. One of
Burns Roberti. “Oh, my love is like a red, red rose” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Compact 7th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011.818. Print.
Nims, John . “Love Poem”. Literature to go. Ed. Meyer, Michael. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. Print.
In ‘Porphyria’s Lover,’ the speaker appears to be honestly and simply recounting the events of his final encounter with Porphyria. However, Robert Browning’s careful use of meter (Iambic Tetrameter), rhyme and repetition betrays his true state of mind. He uses phrases like “Mine, Mine!” to help enforce this.
"Porphyria's Lover" is an exhilarating love story given from a lunatic's point of view. It is the story of a man who is so obsessed with Porphyria that he decides to keep her for himself. The only way he feels he can keep her, though, is by killing her. Robert Browning's poem depicts the separation of social classes and describes the "triumph" of one man over an unjust society. As is often the case in fiction, the speaker of "Porphyria's Lover" does not give accurate information in the story.
There are many positive things and negative things about the movie and the story. In the movie